White House: U.S. had no role in detention of Greenwald's partner

8/19/13 1:46 PM EDT

The United States was not involved in the detention of David Miranda, the partner of journalist Glenn Greenwald, but was told it was likely that the Brazilian citizen would be stopped at London's Heathrow Airport, the White House said Monday.

"This is a decision that they made on their own and not at the request of the United States," White House principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said.

According to Greenwald's account in The Guardian, Miranda was held for nine hours Sunday at Heathrow and questioned under Britain's Terrorism Act. He lives in Rio de Janiero with Greenwald, a U.S. citizen who is working with former national security contractor Edward Snowden to release details of classified U.S. intelligence activities.

Earnest said he wasn't "in a position to talk to you about the conversations between British law enforcement officials and American law enforcement officials" and couldn't say whether U.S. authorities have had access to information collected from Miranda on Sunday. He also declined to comment on whether President Barack Obama thought it was wrong for Miranda to be detained and held for as long as he was.

Earnest did, though, say that British officials had let their American counterparts know that Miranda's detainment was likely. "There was a heads up that was provided by the British government," he said, adding that there was an "indication that this was likely to occur." He wouldn't say whether the U.S. tried to dissuade British officials from stopping Miranda.